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I found this film very exciting. After years of reading Freud, it was thrilling to be able to see Freud and Jung talking and arguing, looking like real people. Where before I had had but a superficial idea of their relationship, this Hollywood movie, for the most part based on accurate historical documentation, gave me the visual inspiration to pursue a deeper understanding of the historically significant rupture between Freud and Jung. I want first to describe the movie and then share what I have learned by comparing scenes in the movie with material gleaned from relevant letters and diaries. While the relationship between Jung and Sabina Spielrein is interesting in its own right, I don't consider it to have been a crucial factor in Freud and Jung's falling out. My view of these relationships is perforce based on my selective reading, inasmuch as reviewing the extensive literature and research on the topic is beyond my scope.
When the film begins, Sabina Spielrein (played by Keira Knightley) is nineteen, Jung (Michael Fassbender) twenty-nine, and Freud (Viggo Mortensen) thirty-eight. The significant age difference between Freud and Jung and their difference in physical stature are not faithfully depicted in the film—in my view, a shortcoming. Jung, the tall, robust, and large-boned extrovert, in fact towered over the diminutive, professorial Freud.
That said, the film does accurately depict many of the historical events leading to the discovery of the unconscious and the concept's